On May 11, ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ presents the world’s talents, ranging from China’s chart topper Jane Zhang to recent YouTube sensation Susan Boyle.
Coming to “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday, May 11 are two icons of “Britain’s Got Talent”. Judge Simon Cowell will attend the talk show in person while contestant Susan Boyle will pop her head via Skype. The episode is under the theme “The World’s Got Talent” and is packed with talents around the world.
According to the press release, Simon will also be there to “debut the artists he calls ‘the next big thing'”. Also featured on the episode are singer Jane Zhang from China, Germany’s “Alex Swings, Oscar Sings” who appears via satellite from Hamburg and a look at Afghanistan’s top talent competition.
credits: Bwear@Asianfanatics
This is idarklight spazzing out…this is my fangirl confession: I actually wrote a recommendation of Jane on Oprah’s site two months ago…
Jane Zhang on Oprah commercial:
I saw Jane on the show, she was awesome!! Too bad they didn’t air the part when she sang Loving You at the end.
Susan Boyle Semi final 24 May 2009 Britains Got Talent
Susan Boyle has again pleased.:)
Susan Boyle Semi final 24 May 2009 Britains Got Talent
well, DBSK all has English names (except for Junsu), but I think their fans (especially subbers) prefered to call them by their Korean names so the English names never really stuck
^^ English is the international language at the moment. hopefully it wont be in the future.. Korean girl groups/boy groups may have English names for their groups or persona but i dont recall any of them taking english names. wonder girls may have made their names easier for americans to pronounce “sun”, “mimi”, “yennie” but they are not english names.
It reminds me of Jay-Z, too…Jane Zhang is better. Zhang Liangying is even prettier. There are some Chinese artists whose english name I love, though. Like Wei Chen’s Vision, which is basically a romanization of his name,but cooler.
But it bothers me that some artist pick such common English names…like Bob or Joe (no offense meant).
Not only that, but for an artist from one Chinese-speaking region entering into another, an English name can help get past the dialect and language differences (if any). Michael Wong’s actual name is in Hakka, for example. But then you get cases like JJ Lin. His name is Wayne. Really…Wayne. Wang Lee Hom doesn’t use ‘Alexander’, which actually is his real name.
And then there’s the whole thing with English being a prestiege language. Think of all the popular Korean songs in the past year; so many of them had English titles. Wonder Girls, Big Bang, Super Junior…even their names are English.
Or how about Japanese songs with random English sentences that don’t actually make any sense? English is just trendy, I guess.
And if you look at Japan and Korea, though, you’ll notice how fiercely proud and nationalistic they are. I guess that stems from being so ethnocentric. It’s a kind of pride that you don’t see in Chinese communities outside the Mainland. I’d imagine that if the Chinese music industry was more based in China, rather than Taiwan, it’d be different.
It’s because Hong Kong was the first Chinese-speaking place that had a real entertainment system, and since HK was under British rule, many of her artists would adopt an English name. As Taiwan’s entertainment circle took shape and matured, they looked to Hong Kong and followed their lead, also adopting English names. Mainland Chinese haven’t followed this trend mostly, but some choose to.
So yeah….basically it was due to British colonization which defined this aspect of Chinese entertainment. I personally dislike it as well, but I can’t blame the artists too much. It’s been there for decades.
Why is it Chinese performers need to adopt English names? Japanese and Koreans proudly retain their ethnic names and are just as popular. Instead of Jane or Jane Z (sounds too much like black rapper JZ), I’d rather she’d just use her Chinese name and develop a repetoire that is not a mere imitation of Mariah Carey.
Well, that is what the perfect situation would be like. I’m expecting half a song. Hoping for another line of whistle register.
One and a half’s a bit much to hope for – I mean, the show will almost certainly spotlight Susan Boyle, and it’s not just those two who’ve been invited – it looks like they have quite a number of guests joining them. I’m more hoping that she’s sings some kind of medley of songs that really shows off her range and interchanges English and Chinese, because I don’t think she’ll be given long enough to sing in both languages and display her versatility otherwise.
I’m not expecting much, neither. I’m hoping for one and a half songs. A more powerful English one like Walk Away, and then a graceful Chinese one that shows off her whistle register, maybe the end of Painted Heart. Or maybe To be loved. Maybe celebrate. Maybe Only For Love.
I think she did an excellent job choosing her songs in Japan, and I hope the same will be true this time.
Being a huge Jane Zhang fan, I’m just as excited about this as everyone else…but at the same time, I am a bit worried.
Obviously, the main part of the episode will be focused on Simon Cowell and Susan Boyle. Which means, right from the start, that Jane won’t be too involved in the show. Probably only a five or six minute segment. One minute video introduction, four minutes of her singing “Lovin’ You” and a minute or so of Oprah-Jane conversation before Oprah turns to the camera and says: “Don’t go away we’ll be right back.”
If that happens, I’ll be disappointed.
It’s just my guess that she sang Lovin’ You, just because it’s pretty much her signature song now. I hope I’m wrong because it’s an awful song to show off Jane’s vocals. Sure, it shows her range, but that part comes in right at the first chorus. After that, what do you have? There’s no real climax, no strong bridge; nothing to show off her powerful voice. It’s not really memorable.
Please, not Lovin’ You. Please. > _ <
I am, however, looking forward to seeing how Jane’s English-speaking skills have improved. You can definitely hear the improvement when she sings (compare her early performances to her Tokyo ones), but I’d like to see how she fares in a casual interview.
Oh, and, I hope…I really hope that they don’t ‘use’ Jane as a contrast to Susan Boyle. The whole Susan Boyle phenomenon exists because she doesn’t ‘look’ like she should have that voice. I’d hate for Jane’s talent to be under-appreciated just because she has a pretty face.
Wow, it is way too early in the morning for me to be acting so cynical. = _ =
511~~gogogo~~~little zhang~~~